Finding our way through the wilderness

Matthew 5:29-30

New International Version (NIV)

²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Day Two

Moving Forward

Yesterday we discover that in order to find our way out of the wilderness we must first recognize that we are indeed in the wilderness.  Recognition is the first step towards salvation. So when acknowledge that we are indeed lost in a spiritual wilderness, we know that only God can create a path to get us to our promised land.

Now that we have taken that first step where do we go from here? The only logic answer would be that we move forward. However, sometimes moving forward is easier said than done. One of the hardest things to do when you accept Christ into your heart is to move forward, because in order to move forward you have to leave some things behind. This causes us to become complacent in our relationship with God, which in turn sets us back even further in our journey. This is true because the closer we are with God the harder the enemy works to cause separation. The good news is that God gave us instructions on how to move forward after we have taken that crucial first step.

Let’s examine the scripture from above.

In this text Jesus was giving what we call the Sermon on the Mount.  Here Jesus is telling the people that he did not come to abolish the Laws that the people lived by but He came to fulfill them. He goes on to tell them to expand on the laws i.e. not only should you love your neighbor but you should love your enemy as well.

In our text He says if your right causes you to stumble then gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Now I don’t think that Jesus meant literally for us to cut off body part that we believe are causes us to sin. No as for most of His teachings He spoke in parables and riddles so that you would have to truly study the word to gain an understanding in to what He was trying to say. This again goes with what we say early with God giving us free will he wants us to search and find him on our own accord.

So what does this scripture have to do with our topic of moving forward? I’m glad you asked.

Here Jesus gives us a perfect road map how to move forward on our journey out of the wilderness. When He says if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. What He means is that when we start to move forward with our relationship with God we are going to have to cut some of things that may yield your forward progress. Because once we decided  to walk with God we have to separate yourself from the world. Again this is a hard thing to do, but in order to move forward it has to be done.

While it can be almost anything that can hinder us from moving forward, some of the more common roadblocks are angry, resentment, lust, envy, hate, and an unwillingness to forgive. These are the things that we want to cut away from our live so that we can start moving forward.

In the same token we also have to cut ties with some people, things, and places if we truly want to find our way out of the wilderness. Because some people are content with living in the wilderness and some things that we done before we started our journey can make us turn and walk in the opposite direction of our promise land. And to be real, some places we just don’t have any business being at if we are truly inviting Jesus into our hearts.

So in order to start moving forward towards our promised land, let’s cut away some of the things that are holding us back. We can do so by giving it all to Jesus. Whatever is hindering us from moving forward give it to the Lord and I promised He will take the burden.

Please continue along with us on our journey tomorrow, until then God Bless.

James Anthony Love